PUSH - With special guest Krafty kuts!

Zoelee

So you want to know more about this guy Krafty? .... Read here!

One half of SuperCharged & Against The Grain, superstar DJ, top dog producer and one seriously funny bloke, please welcome the hardest working man in show business!

Krafty Kuts aka Martin Reeves started his career in the music industry from humble roots running his Brighton record store where he gained his encyclopaedia knowledge of hip hop and funk supplying records to the likes of Fat Boy Slim amongst others. The store was essentially a drop in centre for DJ’s, producers, promoters and any one else who fancied coming in for a debate on the state of the music industry! This was also the place where he would meet future business partner Skool Of Thought and studio partners Ed Solo and A-Skillz, but more on that later.

So by this time around 1996 Krafty Kuts was already DJ’ing all over the south coast making a name for him self and had started dabbling in the studio making beats. His first big break (no pun intended!) happened when Norman Cook aka Fat Boy Slim heard a dubplate of Krafty’s ‘Gimme the breaks’ tune and immediately signed it to his Southern Fried label and the tune was massive! As a result of this success a hook up with Ministry of Sound's offshoot label FSUK followed, unleashing the singles 'Funky Elements'; 'Wild In the Aisles' (inspired from Martin's appearance on Supermarket sweep!) and 'Return of the Elements'. Soon afterwards in 1998 he released his first Krafty Kuts' compilation 'Slam the Breaks On' which went on to sell well into the five figure mark.

It was at this point Krafty Kuts met Skool Of Thought, the pair hit it off and decided to launch a weekly breaks night in Brighton and SuperCharged was born. With the dynamic duo as residents and pulling in all their DJ mates the night soon become a hit and was rammed every week. Today the club is world-renowned and you can still find Krafty Kuts playing most weeks.

By 1999 Krafty’s sound had been defined with his unique party rocking style hitting the spot with clubbers across the globe. Martin was remixing everything from Eric B and Rakim to Moloko and took to the studio with Ed Solo, Freddy Fresh, New York's Dr Luke[/]b to produce a collection of party beats that would later become the influential creative elements for [b]Fingerlickin' Funk.

The year 2001 was also proving to be an eventful period for Krafty Kuts producing music for a Coca Cola advert, PlayStation 2, Guy Richies ‘Mean Machine’ movie and a cover mount CD for Mixmag. With so much music being made, the DJ bookings flooding in and the club full, Krafty decided to call it a day at the record store and instead launched two record labels with business partner Skool Of Thought. Following the success of the club nights they named one label SuperCharged and the other Against The Grain, the latter had planned to be a collaboration with Freddy Fresh but his global DJ commitments made this impossible. A string of killer releases followed with Krafty Kuts ‘Lost Plates EP’, Lock The Hype’ and ‘Sound Check’ making big waves on the breaks scene. Could it get any better?! Well it did and in 2001 and 2002 Krafty Kuts was voted in the top 100 DJ’s in the world by DJ magazine and then best International DJ in Australia beating of stiff competition from the likes of Sasha, Digweed and Adam Freeland. Krafty Kuts found himself in true superstar DJ territory!

Come 2003 he had an urge to revisit his hip hop roots and followed up a contact he made earlier in his record store years. Adam Mills, a young super talented DJ and producer was starting to make waves and Krafty Kuts organised a project for them to join forces and embark in a hip hop party breaks album. With the aid of Finger Lickin records the project was soon under way and Adam and Martin were recording with legends such as Kurtis Blow, Dr Luke and Ashley Slater. The album titled ‘Trickatechnology’ is a true masterpiece and almost brings us up to date the hectic world of Krafty Kuts!

On the horizon is Krafty Kuts next album on Against The Grain taking a more breaks orientated approach and due for release in Spring 2005.